The Chicago Bears moved Friday, June 5, to advance their stadium project development efforts in Hammond, Indiana, a step that pushes the team’s long-running search for a new home farther from Soldier Field and deeper into the cross-border debate over where it will play next.
For now, the team is still only talking about a possible site. No specific location has been selected in Hammond, and the Bears said Chicago is not a viable option, leaving Arlington Heights and Hammond as the only places under consideration. The franchise has played its home games in Chicago since 1921, aside from the 2002 season in Champaign while Soldier Field was renovated, so any move would mark a major break with more than a century of history.
The latest shift follows months of maneuvering. In December, Kevin Warren told season-ticket holders the Bears would broaden the search into Indiana after Illinois politicians signaled that the club’s stadium project would not be a priority in 2026. Last month, the team said it had exhausted every opportunity to stay in Chicago and repeated that no viable site exists in the city. On Friday, George McCaskey and Warren said the board of directors had voted to further focus stadium efforts on Hammond.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was quick to play down the announcement. He said the Bears have made their intentions known in multiple jurisdictions and that Friday’s move was not surprising. He also noted that team officials have said the vote does not mean a shift to Hammond is guaranteed. Chicago will keep talking, he said, until there are shovels in the ground in Hammond.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. took the opposite view, saying the Bears chose his city because it is a place of opportunity and possibility. He said Hammond and all of Northwest Indiana would benefit from what he called a transformative investment and said he was proud to have worked with Gov. Mike Braun, Speaker Todd Huston, Sen. Ryan Mishler and local legislators to help push the deal through.
The friction now is not about whether the Bears want to leave Soldier Field. It is about where they will land. A person familiar with the situation said the team will ultimately move to Hammond or Arlington Heights, not remain downtown in Chicago. Until a final site is chosen, the project remains a moving target, and the next real milestone will be the first time the Bears stop talking about possibilities and name a place.
